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Firefighter Heart Attack
Location: New Canaan, Connecticut Date: May 21, 1990 Story For members of the New Canaan Fire Department, 58-year-old John DiPanni, a 30-year-veteran of firefighting, was more than just a respected coworker. He was a close friend and even like a father or brother figure to some of the firefighters. They said with firefighting, everyone is like brothers. Around 5:10pm on May 21, 1990, both full-time and volunteer firefighters were dispatched to a kitchen fire. John was driving the fire engine that day, and everything was fine until his foot suddenly came off the accelerator, and it looked like he was about to make a wrong turn. Firefighter Mike Tiani, who was sitting next to John, grabbed him, and he fell across the seat. The engine was headed for a telephone pole, but Mike was able to steer it away. He then attempted to slow it down, but it was still heading towards a tree, so he applied the emergency brake. A responding volunteer noticed that the engine had stopped, and did not know what was going on. At first he thought it may have broken down, but then he was told that John was down, and knew something had gone wrong. He ran over to try and help. John was pulled out of the engine and laid on the ground. The volunteer called on the radio and reported he had suffered an apparent heart attack and didn't seem to be breathing, and he needed an ambulance quickly. They still weren't sure if it was a heart attack or not. Firefighter Paul Karl came to help, and firefighter Joe Coviello kept talking to John, telling him he was going to be okay. After the volunteer finished his radio call, he asked out the window if John was breathing, and Joe said he believed he was. Ron D'Amario, an EMT, noticed the situation and did not know what was going on, so he assessed John and could tell immediately that he was not breathing. It sounded like he was breathing, but he was really only discharging the air from his lungs. Ron said part of him died right there. The other firefighters felt like they were losing their own brother. They started CPR, and it was harder for them to do it on someone they knew well than anyone else. Assistant fire chief Jack Van Deusen, who had known John all his life, arrived and helped with the situation. He saw him lying on the ground with blue skin, and he knew he had to do whatever he could to get him back. Jack remembered his father dying of a heart attack, and seeing John the way he was brought back many memories of the night his father died. Joe kept talking to John and telling him he would be fine. He saw everyone was crying, but still didn't give up and thought John would come out of it. Margot Donaldson, an EMT with the Ambulance Corps, showed up with an oxygen unit, but there was the concern that the oxygen may cause brain damage. A New Canaan ambulance arrived moments later, but it had only basic life support equipment. They needed advanced life support, so paramedics were sent from Norwalk Hospital, 10 minutes away. Meanwhile Mike and some of the other firefighters decided to go to the fire and leave the other half to work on John. A defibrillator came out of the ambulance. CPR had served its purpose, but they needed to try to restart John's heart. It was difficult for Joe to see John's seemingly lifeless body jump up from the ground when he was shocked. They got a pulse, and he was loaded into the ambulance. The monitor on the defibrillator, however, showed that John had lost his pulse, so CPR was resumed. It was very disappointing that they had seemed to lose him again after his brief pulse. He was shocked again, but there were no results, so they knew they needed advanced life support quickly. They met the advanced life support unit halfway to the hospital, and two paramedics came with them, saying that it made it more difficult knowing that the EMTs and firefighters all knew John personally. The monitor still showed ventricular fibrillation, which meant his heart has basically stopped. John was shocked again, this time with the advanced defibrillator, and it generated a pulse, so everyone was ecstatic. But it takes a long time after someone comes out of cardiac arrest for them to be out of the woods. On the way to the hospital, it was obvious John was doing better. He was even squeezing his friends' hands. They knew he definitely had a chance. When John arrived at the hospital he was still unconscious. Nobody knew how serious his heart attack would turn out to be. They knew he would be alive, at least for a couple more hours, but they didn't know if he would make it any longer, and how much damage had been done to his heart. Jack left the hospital knowing that John was in good hands, and had a feeling he would make it. John recovered from his heart attack within a month, and married Linda Kennedy the next October. He went on disability and retired from firefighting. It took a little while for what had happened to sink into John, but he knew he was lucky to have survived. A woman once told Linda that when you wake up in the morning, you should be happy to be alive, and so many people just take every day for granted that way, and do not think about how it could be their last day. John now felt that way every day. John knew Jack and Mike when they were little boys, and if they hadn't known what they were doing, he would have died. The incident made all of the firefighters closer and just realize how fragile life is. The CPR and teamwork was what saved John's life. They all knew they each had played a part in it. Jack called this John's second life, remembering he had been there for him when he lost his father at age 13, and now he was there for John. Category:1990 Category:Connecticut Category:Heart Attacks Category:Cardiac Arrest